During the holiday season, our hearts are more open to each other and to our hopes and prayers for the world around us—and the world we bequeath to our children. Our consciousness is heightened to both the powerful resilience and fragility of that world.

With this in mind, I’d like to share two quotes that have jumped out to me recently. The first I saw when visiting a friend in the hospital:

“Always be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.”

The second is from a booklet entitled Prayers for World Peace prepared by the Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso* of the Kadampa Buddhist tradition:

“We should know that learning to cherish others is the best method for establishing world peace in general and for our own peace of mind in particular".

“If everyone sincerely prays to be able to cherish other living beings, then gradually through the power of this prayer, everyone will actually cherish each other. The world will then be permanently at peace, and pure and everlasting happiness will pervade the entire world.”

What these quotes share is a consciousness of others and community and life bigger than ourselves. This is the sensibility behind some of my own writing in The Art of the Question that I shared in a recent blogpost. That section from the end of the book is entitled “Let Us Inquire Together” and that title was intentional prayerful. Here’s an excerpt: “As Learners we can join as participants in a living dialogue about a win-win future. Taking advantage of the question-driven nature of choice and responsibility, we can dedicate ourselves to speak, listen, and act together in enlivening the spirit and expression of genuine community.”

Here’s something that lifted my spirits and reminded me of how much is good and beautiful and inspiring in this world. I hope you’ll go to and watch videos of 10 people who are creating win-win futures and who won the title of “CNN Hero” in 2017.

As we step together into 2018, what life and light-filled questions might we ask ourselves and each other, day by day and moment by moment, to create such a world? 

Let us inquire together ~